by Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY Sports

by Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY Sports

Watch out Wonderlic. There's a new test in town that promises to improve the focus of the NFL microscope on draft prospects, while possibly giving more players at fair chance a sound evaluation.

But don't think the NFL's Player Assessment Tool (PAT) will predict whether a first-round D-tackle will wind up wrecking the buffet during a brawl at the Midnight Lounge.

The PAT is not designed for that.

Yet the customized test, which will be administered to prospects at the NFL's scouting combine this week in Indianapolis, is supposed to provide teams with an idea of whether a player will get along with teammates, make it to meetings on time and put in the effort to take his skills from good to great.

Just as significantly, the PAT will provide an indication of how the player will best pick up the playbook - whether it's with a visual aid, in writing, or with an on-the-field demonstration (sans yelling, please).

At least that's the hope.

If this tool proves to be as viable as promised, it has been a long time coming as an added evaluation component in the NFL draft process.

"These guys are making these multi-million dollar decisions, and in some regards it's like they are walking into a dark room with a flashlight," Cyrus Mehri, the attorney who proposed the PAT idea to the NFL, told USA TODAY Sports on Sunday. "This is going to turn on the lights."

Mehri has had a presence in the league for more than a decade. He's co-founder of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which promote minority hiring of coaches and executives, and helped draw up the Rooney Rule.

He also has an extensive track record in fighting discrimination in corporate America, as the huge settlements he brokered in the Coca-Cola and Texaco cases suggest.

More than two years ago, Mehri began collaborating with an industrial psychology expert, Henry Goldstein, a professor at Baruch College, City University of New York, to develop a test for NFL players.

For decades, prospects at the combine have taken the Wonderlic exam to measure aptitude, but there has long been a sentiment by many in the league that the IQ test was an irrelevant measure for evaluating football players. As with other forms of standardized testing, some critics have contended there is a bias against test-takers from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The Wonderlic test (50 questions with a 12-minute time limit) still will be administered. It was devised in the 1930s to screen job applicants for their abilities in areas such as math and reading comprehension. The Dallas Cowboys pioneered its use in NFL scouting in the 1970s.

Many teams were already using their own personnel tests to supplement the Wonderlic, but the need for a better test remained.

"This kind of levels the playing field from a socio-economic point of view," Mehri contends.

"A lot of guys may be very intelligent, but are not as book-smart as others. Someone may not be the best reader, but they can still be very smart in picking up things."

The PAT - titled as such, Mehri says, because it should be considered in the final stages of evaluation, as an extra point attempt follows a touchdown - is a 60-minute computer-based test. Of similar tests that Goldstein designed for other industries, Mehri says the PAT most resembles one developed for firefighters.

The basis for test questions was gathered during interviews that Mehri and Goldstein conducted last fall with seven current or former NFL general managers.

"It started with, 'What makes a successful player in the NFL?' " Mehri said. "It was fascinating. Every one of them had a different philosophy, but they represented seven roads to the same destination."

In a memo distributed to NFL teams on Friday that was obtained by USA TODAY Sports, executive vice president Ray Anderson hailed the PAT as an "exciting innovation that brings updated best practices from corporate America to NFL football operations." Anderson said the test measures "learning styles, motivation, decision-making skills, responding to pressure or unexpected stimuli, and core intellect."

The PAT was reviewed by the NFL's General Managers Advisory Committee, and Anderson noted that proponents included Thomas Dimitroff (Atlanta Falcons), John Elway (Denver Broncos) and Jerry Reese (New York Giants).

Results will include a coaching summary that will measure adaptability to various methods of presenting information. In other words, maybe there are three ways to teach an option route.

"You can really do state-of-the-art things that are much more predictive of how some-one succeeds," Mehri said. "But there is one limitation. It's not predictive of off-the-field problems."

For that, guess there's good ole fashioned scouting, police reports and gut feeling. And maybe the next version of the PAT.